Recent News

Up and down the country spending by Co-op members has raised over £19 million to be spent on over 4000 Local Community Fund projects. Thanks to spending by local Co-op members over £1800 is being made available to help restore the Cally boundary walls.

The scaffolding surrounding the Rutherford monument has been taken down, the security fencing removed and the last of the pointing at the foot of the monument finished. The monument is now restored to its former glory.

To celebrate the restoration of the monument there will be a talk in the Mill on the Fleet on 26th October by Professor John Coffey of Leicester University. In the meantime the Gatehouse Development Initiative will be preparing an information board on Samuel Rutherford and the monument which will be placed in the Mill on the Fleet and we will also be producing a trail leaflet.

A dyking competition is to be held at Drummuckloch to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding in Gatehouse of the Dry Stone Walling Association of Great Britain. Thirty years earlier Colonel Rainsford-Hannay of Cardoness, concerned at the decline in the number of dykers had established the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright Drystane Dyking Committee. It was this organisation which grew into the national body in 1965.

The spell of find weather has created the perfect conditions to get the scaffolding up to the Rutherford monument. The scaffolding arrived on 4th June and was immediatley taken up to the monument. Work should be completed by the end of the week allowing Luce Bay construction to start work on taking down and rebuilding the top sections of the monument.

Representatives from 5 different countries will gather in Gatehouse on 5th and 6th June to discuss progress on a European project. The Gatehouse Development Initiative is part of the Erasmus+ project Eco-management, yesterday's knowledge, tomorrow's know-how.